


Who is he?

by ThatGirlMae



Category: The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
Genre: I don’t know what to tag, Reality manipulation, Supernatural Elements, Telekinesis, Time Control, mention of car crash, powers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-05-12 10:37:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19227469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatGirlMae/pseuds/ThatGirlMae
Summary: A new boy moves into town and befriends Liesel, but something about him seems...off.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was a essay we had to do for language arts that I got a good grade on.

The first time she saw him was when Liesel was walking down the street back home to Rosa and Papa, her knuckles bruised and bloodied and still mumbling about the boy she had just beaten up.  
“Are you alright? You seem pretty out of it.” A quiet voice said behind her, she jumped at the sudden voice and quickly turned around. A short messy haired boy was staring at her, his dark hair caked in mud, his clothes were torn and covered in soot and grit. The aura around him was dark but familiar.  
“Hello? You alright?” The boy asked again, snapping his fingers in front of her face to get her out of her daze.  
“Yeah I’m alright sorry...” she answered shyly, “do I know you? You seem familiar.” She questioned. “No I don’t think so, I’m new here.” He informed “oh, my names Orcus by the way” he said putting his hand out for her to shake.  
“I’m Liesel” she answered and shook his hand. Walking ahead of him “What house are you in? I can walk you home..” she asked, turning around after a few minutes of the silence.  
“Hey did you hear me?-“  
But he was gone.  
The second time Liesel saw the boy was when she was delivering the laundry for Rosa, she walked up to the mayors house to deliver the laundry,  
“Here is your laundry ma’am, my mama is sick today so I’m sorry for my unexpected appearance on her behalf.” She handed the clean clothes over and waited for the mayor’s wife to pay her. “And who is this young man?” The mayor’s wife inquired, Liesel stood on the steps confused when a voice piped in behind her,  
“Hello ma’am I’m Orcus, nice to meet you” she turned her head around quickly to find the source of the voice, she stared at him with wide eyes ‘how did I not hear him?’ Liesel asked herself. She turned back to the mayors wife and took the money from her.  
“Thank you ma’am!” she cheerfully said with a smile as she turned around and walked down the steps, Orcus following closely behind. As soon as she got out of earshot from the mayors wife she turned to him,  
“How do you prowl around like that?” She asked him,  
“It’s just how I am, It doesn’t have any skill to it.” He responded, shaking his head as he continued “and no I don’t steal things like you and Rudy do.” He said accusingly.  
“How do you know about that?” She asked, worried and wide eyed.  
“I know everything about everyone, there is nothing you can hide from me Liesel” he cut off thinking about his next words, “no one can hide anything from me” he responded darkly, lowering his voice he continued talking, “humans will ravage this world, and when there is nothing left they will move on to the next.” He stated quietly.  
“Well you seem like a fun guy to be around” she said jokingly, “do you want to play soccer with me and Rudy?” She asked trying to brighten up the mood. He smiled  
“Sure, I would love too” he answered. They walked towards the fields together talking along the way,  
“Do you like to read?” She asked him,  
“Yes, Ive also been writing a book” he answered, “and no” he continued “you cant read it”  
She scoffed and rolled her eyes, “you’re such a drama queen” she said jokingly.  
“Yeah whatever miss ‘Rudy’s hair looks like the color of lemons’ Liesel.” He lightly punched her arm, she froze and turned to him wide eyed. “How do you know about my thoughts?” she asked looking at him intimidatingly, trying to get information out of him.  
“That doesn’t work on me Liesel I know what you’re trying to do, my mom used the stare at them until they break trick all the time. I’m immune to it now” he said in a monotone voice.

“Who are your parents? You’ve never mentioned them, are you an orphan?” Liesel inquired, “where do you even live?” She continued.  
“Don’t ask questions about stuff like that.” He answered sternly, the tension between them growing. “Jesus, Mary and Joseph, calm down. I’m sorry for mentioning them.” She apologized. He winced at her use of words.  
“What’s wrong?” She asked suspiciously,  
“Nothing, they are just not as fun as you would believe” he responded frustrated,  
“Who’s they?” She asked puzzled,  
“No one” he answered sternly, the tense mood disappearing, “lets go play soccer” he said smiling back at her once he saw Rudy and the rest of Liesel’s teammates.  
After Orcus was introduced to Rudy and the rest of the team they began their game of soccer, around 3 games were played and Liesel won, of course. As they laughed and talked about random topics, Liesel turned to Orcus to ask if he wanted her to walk him home,  
But he was gone.  
The third time Liesel saw the boy, who she now sees as a friend and no longer a stranger, was when she herself, sought him out. Walking through the quiet street she looked for a sign of him at least 20 times, when she was just about to give up she saw him running past her with an angry man chasing after him. Orcus laughed at the man’s anger  
“Come back here! You Saukerl!” The man who, she now recognized as the shop owner who lives down the street. Orcus laughed again and turned the corner ahead of Liesel. She came to her senses and ran after him. As she turned the same corner she looked and expected to see Orcus stuck at the dead end that the street came to. Though she couldn’t find him, she huffed confused, “What are you doing?” A voice said from behind her. She turned to him confused. ‘There’s no way I couldn’t of seen him.’ She thought to herself.  
“Ok, who are you really?” She huffed out annoyed and fed up. He rolled his eyes,  
“What am I supposed to say? The devil himself?” He smiled,  
“Ha” she said in a monotone voice, she rolled her eyes and chuckled.  
“Think about it” he said the smile disappearing from his face, he looked at her and smirked. “I’ve got to get home, and so do you, Rosa is gonna yell for you in a second”  
Just as he finished his sentenced she heard Rosa call for her. She looked at him with surprise. “How did you-?” She asked shocked,  
“I’ve got to go, I’ll see you later, get home soon, I have a feeling something bad is gonna happen tonight.” He turned the corner as she processed his words, she ran after him but,  
he was gone.  
In the newspaper the next morning there was a new story about someone being hit by a car last njght on the street they were on. ‘How did he know?’ She thought to herself.  
The last time she saw him was when she was walking in the forest. She walked down a path she found and hummed quietly to herself, she heard a rustling noise beside her. She looked through the bushes to a clearing in the forest and found Orcus reading a book. She stared at the book he was reading, trying to make out the title or at least some of the words on the pages. She only caught a few words Liesel Meminger: January 1st 1929-August 20th 2009 directly under it she read Max- before he suddenly slammed the book shut.  
“Do you need something” he suddenly called out to her, she froze, knowing she was caught red handed she walked out of her hiding place.  
“What are you reading?” She questioned suspiciously,  
“Nothing you need to worry about” he responded sternly,  
Frustrated she yelled “Stop keeping secrets from me!”  
“Ironic coming from you” he scoffed,

“What are you talking about?” She asked him curiously,  
“you and your family are hiding someone in your basement!” He shouted accusingly, she froze, confused and angry, she clenched her fists, “No one is in our basement! What are you talking about?” She shouted back. He pondered this for a moment and then suddenly spoke again,  
“Sorry, forget I said anything about him, you haven’t met him yet.”  
“Met who?” She asked suspiciously, ‘what is he on about?’ “And what do you mean, yet? Why do you act like you know-“ She continued.  
“For the last time Liesel! Don’t question it!” He interrupted, “The main thing here is that I know who I’m talking about, and you don’t meet Max yet! I shouldn’t have mentioned him and now I’ve might’ve messed this who timeline up!” He shouted at her, the atmosphere around him becoming dark. “What do you mean Timeline?” She questioned cautiously, but before he could answer she continued, “who are you?” She demanded, but before he could answer she spoke again, “no, you know what? What are you?” She inquired clenching her fists by her sides. He froze and pondered his answer for a minute,  
“Fine, I’ll tell you the truth” he answered grimly. She paused, not expecting him to tell her so easily. “As you’ve guessed I’m not..exactly like you people” he told her, looking anywhere but her eyes. She scoffed “can you get on with it, I don’t have all day-“  
“I’m not human!” He interrupted her. She stared at him with wide eyes, he paced around the forest clearing as he continued, “I know everything about everyone, what has happened in the past and whats going to happen in the future.” He took a breath before he continued, “I know when someone was born and when they are going to die, I also know how they are going to die. Some people die in horrific ways and some die peacefully.” He continued to pace with his head in his hands.  
“When do I die?” She asked suspiciously, not making sense of the whole situation.  
“I can’t tell you that, I can tell you about your past though.” He answered, before she could respond he continued “your name is Liesel Meminger, you were born on January 1st 1929 and your little brother died when you were on the train and when you were 10. You buried your brother on the side of the train tracks and you stole your first book, the “Grave diggers handbook” as a memory of your brother.” He stopped and stared at her. Her eyes were wide and she was obviously shocked. “It’s true..” she said in wonder,  
“Yes it is” he responded flatly, he smiled at her.  
“But who are you really?” She asked again, he froze and turned towards her,  
“My real name is Death”  
And then he disappeared for the last time.  
Months later as she was reading in Ilsa Hermann‘s library she came across a familiar name, she ran her fingers over the printed ink and asked Ilsa Hermann a question, “what does ‘Orcus’ mean?” Mrs. Hermann pauses and looked around the room, when she found what she was looking at she flipped through the pages until she found the name, she handed the book to Liesel to read.  
“This book is from Rome, my husband travelled there once and brought back this book for my son to read.” She said grimly.  
Liesel’s eyes scanned the pages for the name. “Orcus: ancient Roman god of the underworld”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I don’t have more written for this but if this does well I’ll update

As the months went on, Liesel kept trying to keep Orcus in her memory. Everyone in town had seemingly forgotten the mysterious boy, his odd behavior paired with how much trouble that he caused made Liesel wonder if he erased his existence from everyone’s mind in town. ‘Why haven’t i forgotten him then’ she had a sliver of hope that since he formed a friendship with her he didn’t have the heart to take that away from her. ‘He doesn’t even have a heart, he’s not human Liesel’  
She put her head down on the desk she was sitting at.  
“Saukerl!” Rosa interrupted Liesel’s racing thoughts as she cried up to Liesel’s room “It’s time for dinner!” She exclaimed.  
“Coming mama!” She responded. Staring at the pages of the book she was attempting to read before her mind was bombarded with constant questions and thoughts. She slammed the book shut, stood up and rushed down the stairs to greet mama.  
“Liesel” she heard someone whisper, she rolled over in her bed the moonlight shining through her eyelids.  
“Liesel!” She heard again, annoyed from being woken up she sat upwards to see what disturbed her from her sleep. Her eyes widened as she saw the figure of a boy sitting on the window sill. “Orcus?” She asked surprised,  
“Yeah it’s me” he sighed before continuing, “I got bored and wanted to check up on you and your family.” He paused “how’s your mom and dad? Are they hurt?” He continued.  
“Wait.. the house is still here so that hasn’t happened yet..” he murmured to himself. He seemed confused “what’s the date?” He asked,  
“I think it’s June 20th?” She responded still shocked at his sudden appearance.  
“Thanks” He continued to talk “so it won’t happen for a while, good”  
“What?-” She asked but he interrupted her before she could continue.  
“Whatever it doesn’t matter yet” he paused “I forgot that you guys need sleep.” He continued. “Goodnight Liesel.” He said as he disappeared into thin air.  
“Goodnight” she responded, still not processing what happened. She closed her eyes to attempt to fall back asleep.  
As the weeks passed, Liesel and Orcus spent more time together.  
As they walked through the forest she looked at him “So..” she started “who wins the war?” She asked quickly. He froze and looked at her, the lighthearted mood disappearing.  
“I can’t tell you Liesel” he stated sternly.  
“Why not?” She responded aggravated. “You never tell me anything!” She huffed “you know everything about everything! Why can’t I know something about future for once!?” She was shouting at this point.  
“Because it will affected the future if I tell you!” He shouted back at her, his eyes growing dark. The river they were walking by stopped running, the birds froze in the air mid flight, the sounds of the forest stilling. She stared at him in shock, but he kept yelling.  
“You never think about what will happen to me if I tell you what happens in the future!” Another voice broke through his current one as he spoke, this one darker and more dreadful then his normal one. As he continued his rant his eyes flickered to pure black. The world around them started to shake as rocks and twigs raised in the air. She startled back in fear and he paused. The rocks and twigs dropped to the ground as the water in the river started to run again. She heard the calming sounds of birds and running water. She turned to him, he looked at the ground  
shamefully.  
“...sorry” he apologized softly, looking up at her. She took a deep breath  
“It’s alright” she responded.  
“It’s just...” he turned away from her. “The answer to that question affects you and your family.” He spoke quietly. She stared at him with wide eyes and asked him one last question.  
“Does my family die?”

**Author's Note:**

> I have more to this story, it depends on if anyone reads this.


End file.
